1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shifting apparatus for a vehicle, capable of sustaining a neutral range when the vehicle is parked.
2. Description of Related Art
Shift-by-wire (SBW) shifting systems refer to electronic gear lever systems capable of electronically changing a gear range on the basis of a conventional automatic transmission shifting system that is generally used at present.
In the conventional automatic transmission shifting system, a driver directly operates a gear lever in the order of P-R-N-D-3-2-1 to designate a gear range of a vehicle. However, in the electronic gear lever system that has recently been applied to several types of vehicles, once the driver moves the gear lever forward or backward once or twice witch the gear lever located at a designated position at all times, a gear lever controller changes the gear range according to a preset order of the gear range. For example, it is assumed that the gear range ordered P-R-N-D is set for the gear lever controller, and that a current gear range is the N range. When the driver moves the gear lever forward once, the N range is shifted to the R range. When the driver moves the gear lever backward once, the N range is shifted to the D range.
Meanwhile, the electronic gear lever system is separately provided with buttons for performing several special functions. The buttons include a P LOCK button for performing easy P range shifting. When the driver pushes the P LOCK button, the gear range of the vehicle is shifted to the P range without moving the gear lever. Further, the buttons include a P RELEASE button so as to allow parking of the N range of the vehicle. When the driver pushes the P RELEASE button in a state of the P range of the vehicle, the transmission releases the P range, and shifts the P range to the N range so as to enable the parking of the N range.
However, the parking of the N range as described above is possible only when the P RELEASE button is separately provided. As such, additional expenses caused by providing the P RELEASE button, i.e. expenses for waterproofing the P RELEASE button and improving reliability of the P RELEASE button, are inevitably increased.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.